


Not a Cinderella Story

by romantichopelessly



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (perceived at least), Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Childhood Friends, Cinderella Elements, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Jealousy, Kid Fic, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, M/M, Misunderstandings, Spin the Bottle, Theatre, bullet fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25974553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romantichopelessly/pseuds/romantichopelessly
Summary: When Remus, Roman and Virgil were young, they were inseparable. They always played pretend together--castles and princesses and dragons. But everyone has to grow up. Things change. And so do feelings.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	Not a Cinderella Story

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Dukexiety Week 2020! The prompt was Fairytales, and I followed it... very loosely. Hope you enjoy!

  * Remus Sanders and his twin brother Roman have always been close. “Attached at the hip” some would say. Specifically, their mother, neighbors, and preschool teachers.
  * They always do the same things. They like the same juice. The same snacks. They play with the same toys, and they always laugh at the same things.
  * Their bond is unbreakable. They are the perfect duo. They never need anyone else.
  * Until they meet Virgil Storm.
  * They meet him early in their second grade year. Virgil is… a weird kid. He wears a purple jacket with cat ears on the hood in the middle of August. He doesn’t try to talk to anyone at lunchtime. He wears different colored socks and carries a lunchbox with cartoon spiders on it that says “Happy Halloween” even when it isn’t October.
  * He’s odd.
  * Remus loves him. And because Remus loves him, so does Roman.
  * The three of them make quick friends, underneath the tree on the playground, sitting in the grass and sharing easy smiles, as children do.
  * Roman suggests that they play a game that he and Remus invented all on their own--Knights and Dragons.
  * Virgil is quick to agree, because young children don’t have anything to worry about beyond silly games with their peers.
  * Remus believes that Knights and Dragons is a much more fun experience with three people. Sometimes Virgil is a knight, with Roman, and they both chase Remus around the school yard, giggling and waving sticks like they’re swords. And other times, Virgil is a dragon with Remus, and the two of them roar and yell and flap their arms like wings.
  * Virgil makes Remus laugh in ways that he thought only his brother could. Virgil laughs with him, not at him.
  * Of course, all good things come to an end, and soon, for the imaginative boy that was Roman Sanders, Knights and Dragons is not enough.
  * Knights and Dragons are boring in the eyes of a third grader.
  * Roman suggests one day that they add a princess to their game of Knights and Dragons.
  * Remus (rightfully) thinks that this is a very stupid idea. Princesses are for Disney movies and fairytales. Remus Sanders most definitely does not live in a fairytale.
  * But Roman loves fairytales. And Roman loves Disney. And, unfortunately, so does Virgil.
  * So they add a princess to their game. Oftentimes, this princess is played by Virgil, but sometimes Roman steps into the role. Remus is just glad that he gets to stay a big scary dragon.
  * That is… Until just a princess being kidnapped by a dragon and saved by a courageous knight is not enough for young Roman Sanders.
  * No, Roman wants more. Roman wants to emulate his favorite movies and his new favorite theme of said movies--
  * Romance.
  * So Knights and Dragons and Princesses turns into… Playing Cinderella.
  * There definitely wasn’t a dragon in Cinderella.
  * Remus is quickly shoved into the roles of the ugly stepsisters and stepmother. Don’t get it wrong! He loves playing the villain. He loves laughing maniacally and calling his brother funny names and getting away with it without punishment, because it was just pretend.
  * He doesn’t so much like sitting in the grass of his own backyard, watching while Roman and Virgil twirl around, holding hands and “dancing” to imaginary music while they “fall in love.”
  * It’s boring.
  * He’s almost glad when Roman’s phase of playing pretend Disney princesses ends.
  * Except that he can’t be. Because it ends with the three of them turning twelve and entering the dreaded halls of middle school. It ends with Roman joining the school theater club and making a whole bunch of new friends.
  * It ends with Virgil and Remus suddenly being left to walk home from school alone one day.
  * Despite his brother’s popularity, both Remus and Virgil are… outcasts of a sort. And since they just downgraded from a trio to a duo, their friendship is a bit more… strained. They still have the closeness of five years of best friendship, but there’s something… missing.
  * Cue Janus Duncan.
  * Janus is also an outcast. Janus is like a fairy godmother who comes in to save the poor outcasts at the last second, turning bleak days into wishes come true (if eating school lunch under the bleachers and snorting with laughter as they mix all the slushie options at 7-11 into one cup can be considered wishes come true), and wearing a super cool leather jacket that was two sizes too big, but definitely influenced Remus’s punk phase.
  * Because, oh yeah. They definitely both start their punk phases after meeting Janus Duncan.
  * Honestly meeting Janus really is a wish come true for Remus. A miracle among the comedy of errors that was his teenage years.
  * Because after about a year of Virgil, Janus and Remus being the perfect trio 2.0, Remus starts to… notice some things.
  * One thing is the way that his heart seems to inflate like a little balloon in Remus’s chest when Virgil smiles at him. The way that his guts squirm when Virgil laughs at one of his jokes, true and bright. The way that Remus catches himself staring at Virgil’s crooked smile, or his chipped nail polish as his fingers twirl around in his hoodie strings.
  * The second thing has… a lot of the same signs honestly.
  * Because Remus starts to notice how Virgil always watches Roman when he’s over at Remus’s house. The way that Virgil always smiles and waves at Remus’s twin brother when they pass one another in the hallway at school, his pale cheeks flushing a soft pink.
  * It makes a terrible, sickly green emotion curl in Remus’s stomach.
  * Jealousy.
  * So when Virgil tentatively brings up trying out for the school play, and asks Remus if Roman would mind running some lines with him, Remus does something he isn’t proud of.
  * He snaps. He tells Virgil that he shouldn’t try. That he won’t even make it. That he isn’t popular kid material. That Roman isn’t his friend anymore, god, Virgil, can’t you take a hint?
  * He watches it happen like he isn’t the one controlling his own body. He sees the shock take over Virgil’s features. The years of easy trust crumble before his very eyes as Virgil reels back in horror. He can taste the jealousy on his tongue.
  * As Virgil leaves, Remus knows that he is the villain of this story.
  * He can see it as plainly as if he had shattered Virgil’s dreams right in front of him, like so much of a shattered glass shoe on the palace steps.
  * That night, Janus comes over and lets Remus have it.
  * For about five minutes, before Remus breaks down and tells the truth to his now one and only best friend and lecturing quickly turns to comforting.
  * By the time that they start high school, the original trio has withered down to just Remus. The other two thirds are nearly distant memories. One a locked door down the hall, and the other three lockers down, speaking to new friends.
  * Anyone would choose the prince over the ugly stepsister. He couldn’t blame them.
  * The spring of their sophomore year, the school announces that they will be putting on a production of none other than _Cinderella_.
  * Roman auditions, of course. He gets the role of the Prince.
  * Virgil doesn’t audition, but he offers himself up for the role of stage manager.
  * Virgil and Roman’s friends Patton and Logan audition. They get the roles of mice, but they don’t seem at all upset by that fact.
  * Janus auditions. He gets the role of the fairy godmother.
  * Janus asks Remus to audition.
  * Remus refuses. He doesn’t want to play a campy version of the ugly stepsisters in front of the entire school. He may not care about this hell hole, but he isn’t going to make his remaining two years any worse than they have to be.
  * Janus drags Remus to rehearsals anyway. Kicking and screaming.
  * By some miraculous happenstance, Remus suddenly becomes the set designer for the show.
  * He may be imagining things, but he is pretty sure that that has something to do with what Janus, Roman and the director were whisper-arguing about in the first week of rehearsals.
  * Remus is grateful for it. Not that he plans on saying so. He still can’t bring himself to apologize to Virgil, but watching him from afar still brings those butterflies to Remus’s stomach.
  * One night, after rehearsal, Remus is putting the finishing touches on the carriage prop, which has quickly gone from inconsequential to him to his very own magnum opus. He’s just testing out its mobility when he hears soft laughter.
  * Naturally, he follows the sounds.
  * Stage left, hidden in the wings, Remus sees his brother, in full costume, standing across from Virgil, who is chuckling and gently smoothing his hands across the front of Roman’s costume.
  * Remus sees green. His old friend Jealousy curls around him like the dragon that he used to love to play.
  * He barely restrains himself from breaking the very set that he worked so hard on.
  * Funnily enough, that is progress.
  * The night before the play opens, there is a house party. Remus isn’t quite sure who is hosting, but the cast and company are the only people invited.
  * Remus doesn’t want to go.
  * Janus makes Remus go.
  * Begrudgingly, Remus has a good time. He has a good time drinking soda and watching the other stage hands tell stories about past productions. He has a good time laughing at Janus as he unsuccessfully tries to flirt with the boy in the bright blue sweater who plays a mouse.
  * He is still having a good time when the girl who plays Cinderella herself caps a plastic bottle and places it on the ground, calling for everyone to gather around for a game of spin the bottle.
  * Remus finds himself sitting between Janus and his giggly mouse boy, and some other techie who wears sunglasses indoors.
  * There are a few fun rounds. Roman has to kiss the girl playing the stepmother. One of the mice has to kiss Cinderella. It’s all in good fun.
  * That is, until Remus isn’t really paying attention and the mouth of the bottle is suddenly facing him. He blinks.
  * From across the circle, the studious looking mouse speaks up. “Janus clearly touched the bo-” The hand of one of the set designers covers the mouse’s mouth.
  * Remus blinks again. “So who’s the lucky bastard I’m making out with?”
  * All eyes turn to Virgil, who looks like a startled mouse himself.
  * Shit.
  * Virgil is up before anyone can say anything, backing away from the circle and spinning on his heel before making a beeline for the kitchen. Remus follows, standing up before his mind even catches up with his body. He sees Roman making to stand up too, but he holds out a hand.
  * Even after years of not being close, Roman can tell what he means without a word.
  * Remus follows Virgil into the kitchen and finds him leaning against the counter.
  * “Didn’t want to kiss the ugly stepsister that badly, huh?”
  * “What?”
  * “You… You know, Emo, like that stupid game Roman always made us play when we were ankle biters.”
  * “Wh- First of all, you and Roman are identical twins. You look exactly the same. That was just a game.”
  * Remus shrugs, as if he hasn’t carried that game and all it implied with him for the entirety of his teenage years.
  * “And… No. It wasn’t- I just didn’t want to kiss you in front of everyone.”
  * Remus pretends like that doesn’t make his heart shatter into a hundred tiny pieces.
  * Virgil seems to see it anyway. “I mean that I don’t want to… have my first kiss in front of all of them. It’s nothing against you, they just- they just all know about my crush.”
  * Virgil says it like it’s something stupid. Like being in love is something shameful. Like liking Roman Sanders isn’t something that literally everyone in that room except for Remus has in common.
  * “Your crush on my brother?”
  * Virgil looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot on the face of the earth.
  * He probably is.
  * Because he doesn’t see it coming for a second when Virgil steps closer, cups Remus’s cheek in his hand like he is made of something precious and priceless, and closes the gap to kiss him.




End file.
